Contrasts of Aerosol Chemical and Optical Characteristics between Mt. Lulin and Urban Areas in Taiwan

This study proposes to contrast atmospheric aerosol chemical components and their optical effects between high elevation and ground-surface stations in the next two years from August 2020 to July 2022. The comparison is based on multi-year observations of aerosol chemical characteristics from long-range transport at Mt. Lulin (2,862 m a.s.l.) and the results of temporal-spatial distribution, source apportionment, and atmospheric visibility at the six air-quality monitoring stations of Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration. Specifically, this study will manually collect atmospheric aerosols to observe mass concentration, water-soluble inorganic ions (WSIIs), dicarboxylic acids and their salts, carbonaceous content, water-soluble organic carbon, humic-like substance, anhydrosugars, and plasticizers at Mt. Lulin. For the aspect of automated monitoring, this study will conduct short-interval (20 min) WSIIs and aerosol water content of a longer time interval. The combined data will facilitate this study with an integrated assessment for the contrasts of fog, biomass burning (BB) transport, and background air at Mt. Lulin and event and non-event comparisons in the urban area. In the past, the reports on aerosol chemical characteristics of high elevation and ground surface air had been very few. The results from this study will provide the scientific society for the understandings of transport, evolution, and formation environment of various pollution activities and the further interactions among aerosol-cloud-radiation-climate in East Asia. Moreover, this study will assist the grand project in developing a new theme of 7-SEAS by investigating pollutant characteristics of BB and transboundary transport in Southeast Asia. The general objective is to build up a physical center under the belief of Better Air Quality in SEA. The whole work will have supports from the US NASA and NOAA to lead institutions from Southeast Asian countries for paying concerns to evaluate scientific issues of BB characteristics and transboundary transport impacts in Southeast Asia.